Project Zomboid is an open-ended zombie-infested sandbox. It asks one simple question – how will you die? Whether surviving in Knox County free-roam or controlling Indie Stone mascot Baldspot in his quest to save his injured wife Kate – death is always a certainty. Quite how long you manage to put it off is another matter…

Well this Mondoid we gave keys to the twelfth internal build to two of our most trusted YouTube commentators – our very own RingoD123 and, the creator of the very concept of Mondoid, Mathas.

As far as testing progress goes, there are still game ending bugs and other serious glitches to resolve – but it's getting more and more like a fully playable game each and every day. As you can see, we finally have something where it's possible to video for any amount of time in an actual 'gameplay' style.

When you watch the videos please bear in mind that, obviously, there will be bugs visible. Please also bear in mind, however, that if you can’t see any bugs – then please be assured that RingoD and Mathas know what to avoid! What’s more, regardless of how fun it all looks over 30 minutes, the build can still potentially die horribly, crash to desktop and destroy your save after 40 hours of investment.

It's also worth saying that both RingoD and Mathas will be posting up RC3 test builds from now until release so, if you haven't already, it might be worth your while giving their channels a follow. (Their uploads won't necessarily be on a Mondoid, but we'll be sure to include them on our weekly blog all the same.)

Without further ado then…

Here's our own RingoD:

And here's that wonderful Mr Mathas:

As we hope you can see, it's becoming clearer and clearer that our goal of reclaiming the gameplay and energy of 0.1.5d has been successful. Liberated by the sandbox options, the survival game can be tweaked back to 0.1.5d levels without leaving anyone out. What’s more with the larger map with more remote locations it means that, even in survival, you can find a somewhat safe haven. Combat is miles better than the somewhat haphazard 0.2.0 builds too.

While we’ve been tackling the bugs this week, we’ve also been fiddling with the looting system and UI on the side. Looting is much less fiddly, then, while some big changes to interior lighting has made navigating indoors much easier. Save bugs aplenty have been nuked too.

So the list of ‘missing stuff ‘diminishes quickly, as the bugs are following suit. Still left to do though is the somewhat gaping hole that zombies are once again unable to climb through windows. This will hopefully be fixed today, but was way too late in terms of Mathas and Ringod123 to do their magic.

We still have some ways to go, and bad things could yet crop up, but it's looking good. We’ve got release butterflies hatching in our belly from long dormant cocoons - which is a very good sign we're finally on the final final straight. Even though, finally, we’re aware that we’ve used that phrase (almost there!) once or twice in the final straight’s past.